Chapter 163: Soundless Crying
“Ah, um… that is—”
Beside him, strands of blue hair swayed like ripples. Had Rayahn ever seen his little sister Marlin Leivice look this flustered?
Isaac found the scene strangely refreshing, but that wasn’t the point right now.
‘Thank goodness the Silence spell is active,’ he thought.
It bought him a moment to collect his words—and to wonder, with a twinge of anxiety, what Rihanna might blurt out if she could speak freely.
“Let’s step outside first.”
Their relationship mattered, of course, but the Giant, the Silver Clock, and the Abyss Realm had to take priority.
At Isaac’s suggestion the two women nodded, and as they left the room he noticed Rihanna trembling like a poplar leaf.
Isaac felt the shape of the words he needed—and the emotions behind them—coming into focus.
“……”
The discussion with the others dragged on longer than expected, but halfway through everyone began to rally behind Isaac’s proposal.
“Wow… I never imagined I’d hear that from you.”
“I honestly thought Isaac just wanted to wipe the Transcendents out!”
The fact that Isaac—who hated the Transcendents more than anyone—was the one suggesting negotiations carried enormous weight.
Could one even call his hatred prejudice, when he had lived through their massacre himself?
Isaac watched their slaughter with his own eyes, he reminded himself. After dying by their hands, being hypersensitive was only natural.
Another factor was the Giant’s lack of further movement. Perhaps it was sheer arrogance—knowing they couldn’t hurt him anyway—but to the mages it felt like a real opening for talks.
None of them wanted to fight that overwhelming power again.
By the time they conferred with the Tower, reported to the palace, and prepared a formal proposal for the Giant, dusk had fallen.
Walking the night streets back to the inn, Isaac paused before his door and drew a slow breath.
‘I’m the one who told her to wait inside.’
Hoo…
Creak.
Isaac stepped in. Rihanna sat on the edge of the bed, head bowed, her eyes unfocused. She looked both ready to bolt in resignation and too broken to move at all.
With a bitter taste rising on his tongue, Isaac walked over and stood before her.
“Riha.”
Only when he spoke did Rihanna slowly lift her head; she’d been so lost in thought she hadn’t noticed him come in. Her lips moved, but Isaac didn’t remove the Silence-spell necklace. This conversation needed to be one-sided.
“You don’t have to apologize for the regression.”
“……”
“If anything, I should thank you. So please—stop feeling guilty.”
Rihanna shook her head, wordlessly insisting How can I? What you carry is too heavy. Isaac didn’t yield. Because there was something she didn’t know.
“Do you know why I left Helmut in the previous life? I was terrified you might stop loving me.”
“……!”
The feelings he’d already sorted once spilled out more easily than he expected.
“Our fourth wedding anniversary—the chandelier that fell, remember? In that life I was crushed beneath it and lost a leg.”
“……!”
“I could never use it again—I was crippled. From that day on, I couldn’t swing a sword.”
He locked himself away, unwilling to let Rihanna see the man he had become—the man whose every possibility had been stolen.
“So the reason you used regression on me was because you wanted to hand me a new future.”
He know she didn’t rewind time for him just because he was the Silent Sword. Deep down, she wanted to give him another chance.
Helmut had torn those possibilities away.
She wanted to return them, so Rihanna chose Isaac.
“In the end, here I am. The time and opportunities Helmut stole—I’ve gotten them all back through you.”
If only he hadn’t hurt his leg—the Grandmaster used to say that with such regret.
Now that very Grandmaster is pouring everything she knows into him, letting him grow.
For that alone, Isaac felt boundless gratitude for the new life that had already found him.
“So, Riha, stop crying now.”
With a gentle smile, Isaac brushed the tears from her lashes. Rihanna closed her eyes beneath his touch, a hot breath escaping her.
“Understand? You’ve already paid the price. You gave me a new chance.”
“……”
“You took the Vassalization for me, coached my swordplay, and even made sure I could live outside Helmut without struggle.”
Even after our divorce, the rumors about Baron Logan never grew vicious—that was you, quietly severing the gossip before it turned ugly.
“So, Riha, if any sentence still needs serving—”
Isaac drew her into a slow embrace, patting her back with soft reassurance.
“You’ve served it already. Stay by my side without guilt, Riha.”
Her body flinched. The rhythmic tremble of her shoulders told him she was weeping—yet, as if the magic concealed everything, not a sound reached his ears.
The silent, endless sobs continued. She poured out tears and grief yet never left Isaac’s arms.
She mourned a timeline now erased, the karma her forgotten self once carried.
The room remained hushed.
No one could hear it—not even she.
It existed, and yet it did not—like her soundless crying now.
****
“…Unnie didn’t come back to her room last night.”
Sharen muttered it over breakfast, and every eye swung toward Isaac.
“Kehk! cough cough Why—why are you all looking at me?”
Sharen was the one talking; he had no idea why the stares hit him. No one looked away.
“So, have the two of you reconciled?” one master asked dryly.
“Did you spend a heated night, dear pupil?” added the other.
“Haah… it’s not like that,” Isaac sighed. He longed to ignore them, but Sharen wouldn’t let go.
“Unnie came in this morning with her face bright red! Were you two training last night? You told me to go to bed early!”
“Hrr-hmm! A-ahem! Night training, no doubt!” the Grandmaster cackled. “A very special training—one a child needn’t know yet.”
Sharen tilted her head. “Special? Have you done this night training too, Grandmaster?”
“…Just eat.”
“Mmff—!”
The Grandmaster seized Sharen by the scruff and dunked her face into her food—starting the joke and then collapsing under it alone.
Isaac exhaled again. “Seriously, it’s not like that.”
No matter how much Isaac tried to explain, it was clear no one was going to believe him, so he simply went on eating.
Nameless, calmly reached over to Rihanna, who had been pretending not to hear a thing under the Silence spell, and undid the necklace.
At once—
“Isaac’s arms… were so warm.”
Startled by the sound of her own voice, Rihanna froze—more than enough to set off a fresh uproar around the table.
*****
“…….”
“…….”
They were on their way back into the abandoned mine, checking on the Giant.
Marlin followed a few steps behind Isaac, her face unreadable. Whenever he stopped walking, she stopped too—like a shadow turned flesh—which felt oddly uncanny but not unpleasant.
He thought the silence would last, yet between their footsteps Marlin suddenly slipped in a question.
“Is it true you … regressed in time?”
“…You heard it yesterday.”
He answered as evenly as he could, and Marlin nodded. So what will she ask next?
Most people, upon hearing he had lived through the future, wanted to know about themselves—it was only natural.
‘I don’t actually know that much about the Leivice siblings.’
He only knew they’d been steadfast nobles in the war against the Transcendents, young blood that never fled. Had the Transcendents never appeared, they surely would have held high office in the kingdom.
While he sifted through what little he remembered of House Leivice, Marlin blindsided him with an entirely different question.
“Did you really… spend the night together?”
Isaac’s feet halted.
Marlin stopped at the same instant, staring at him blank-faced, a faint blush coloring her cheeks.
“…….”
“…….”
The two stood facing each other in a brief, heavy silence. Isaac let out yet another sigh—much like the ones he’d been exhaling all through breakfast.
“I know what you’re thinking, but no. Riha was anxious, so I just stayed with her—nothing more.”
It was the truth. Isaac had simply held Rihanna while they slept. He hadn’t allowed it to go any further.
Admittedly, judging by the words she’d spilled under Vassalization, Rihanna had wanted more—but given the circumstances, pushing things that way hadn’t felt right.
“I see.”
Marlin accepted that, jerked her chin as if to say let’s move on, and Isaac watched her shameless composure for a heartbeat before turning toward the Giant.
“You’ve come.”
The Giant was unchanged. Only his face and fingers protruded; clearly, he had chosen not to expand the tunnel any further.
Because there was still room to negotiate, the Giant scrupulously held his ground.
“Were you uncomfortable at all?” Isaac asked.
“I have spent countless ages alone,” the Giant rumbled. “Breathing the air of the Human Realm is pleasant by comparison.”
“……Even in an abandoned mine?”
At Isaac’s remark the Giant gave a low laugh.
“Better than the Abyss Realm, all the same.”
Isaac, who had lived there himself, could not fully sympathize—but clearly the place where the Giant now resided was no ordinary space.
Bound by a ritual, made the guardian of that ritual, Isaac recalled.
As payment, the Giant had been stripped of every desire: no hunger, no need for sleep—only endless waking solitude.
Perhaps glad for conversation, the Giant spoke with a faint smile.
“Cloaked in darkness like this, I feel anticipation more than confinement. Outside, sunlight must be pouring down—warmth I can scarcely remember.”
“…….”
“So I hope all the more that we can find common ground.”
“I too hope so, sincerely,” Isaac replied with a nod.
Satisfied, the Giant continued.
“Then, human, there is something I wish to teach you.”
“Yes?”
“It would be ideal if words alone could settle matters, but the Silver Clock I know is not so accommodating.”
“…….”
“If you truly aim to secure peace across the worlds, you will need power to match.”
Creak!
The Giant leaned forward, his face looming nearer. Calm yet unmistakable, he addressed Isaac.
“Strike me—if only a little.”
---The End Of The Chapter---
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